Pingelly finish Narrogin and District Netball Association season on top of the ladder

Pingelly 1 tuned up for the grand final with an impressive win over the fourth-placed Olympics Gold on Saturday to finish the regular season on top of the ladder.

The round-nine clash between the top and bottom teams went goal for goal throughout much of the first half.

There were a couple of strong positional match-ups as Pingelly centre Alex Hodges and Olympics’ Melita Davy generated extra work for each team’s mid-court players to present options to transition the ball to both shooting ends of the court.

Pingelly’s Sheree Blechynden and Leanne Watts worked the goal circle well together, dodging the close attention of Olympics’ Sarah Overington and Careese Ranieri, with only a few cross-court fly balls tempting the two defenders.

In the third quarter, Pingelly changed gears in their overall attack of the ball, with the whole team dictating the play against Pingelly’s notorious wall of defence in Mel Tinker, Leigh Jennings and Chloe Hanson, which forced errors.

That allowed shooters Tracey Swami and Blechynden to increase Pingelly’s lead to 21 goals by three-quarter time.

A more accurate performance by Olympics’ shooters Ashtyn Steer and Tanya Hart in the final term helped prevent the scoreline blowing out in the final term.

Pingelly finished solid winners 67-42 winners and enjoyed the camaraderie, which is always offered by Olympics Gold.

In the other A1 fixture, Williams 1 and Flames 1 played out a thrilling 54-all draw.

The A1 grand final between Pingelly and Williams will start at 4pm on Saturday.